Fripp Design and Research services in this area concentrate very much on the 4Ps, Product, Price, Promotion and Place.
By definition if you have a Product and a Price, with an identified customer need; you have a business opportunity. Fripp Design and Research see the role of Promotions as primarily one of marketing and Place; the role of sales; more specifically your routes to market.
Therefore the key business advantage that smaller businesses can obtain is getting your routes to market right; it is relatively low cost to do (especially with the development of e-commerce and other digital channels) and can bring many advantages, advantages such as:
- Faster entry to market as you are utilising established supply chains; real as well as digital
- Faster feedback on market acceptance and, whether you need to make changes to your market proposition
- Lower burden on your cash flow (for example distributors will, typically give you stocking orders to get your product on their shelf)
Should you sell through an intermediary or direct (via the digital channels for example); or should you do both? If intermediaries are to be used, should you use multiple routes to market or sell through a single source? There are pros and cons to both.
Another key consideration is Promotion (the 4th of the P's). Up until recent times, it was almost impossible for small companies to market to millions of consumers; but this has all changed. With the advent of on line social media sites (such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Electronic Newsletters, on line PR and the plethora of on line forums) it is much easier to get your sales messages across to thousands of consumers very quickly and cheaply. Fripp Design and Research use LinkedIn and Twitter constantly to keep our customers and other stakeholders up to date with what we are about.
For on line transactions, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is critical to commercial success. The beauty of SEO is that it brings customers to suppliers AT THE TIME when they want to buy. By definition this means they are already pre-qualified when they come to your site. Fripp Design and Research are experts in SEO (type 'Product Design' into Google to see where we come) and have assisted many companies to get to the top of search engines with phrases that their customers use (rather than search terms that are easy to get).
Fripp Design and Research has gained vast experience in new product/marketing development, making millions of pounds profit for many organisations. It is our understanding of products, market dynamics, the appropriate use of digital channels and buyer habits which will allow us to help you get your sales tactics right for the markets you operate within.
